Still Just a Fad? Vinyl Sales Surged 30.4% In 2013…

The download destroyed the album, and streaming is now suffocating the download. So why is vinyl still surging to heights unseen since the 70s and 80s?

According to US-based stats just published by Nielsen Soundscan, sales of LPs surged 30.4 percent to 6.0 million in 2013, the largest number since the early 90s. All of which means that in 2013, the only two formats that gained were on-demand streaming, online radio, and vinyl.

Written while listening to The National.

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Yes, the covers are awesome and it’s great to watch the vinyl spin — but it’s an utterly inferior format, and it’ll go away as soon as customers learn that their music is destroyed when it’s mastered for vinyl.

You’ve obviously never listened to vinyl. Sure digital can cut a lot of things, but 99% of those you can’t even hear in the mix. And digital artificially inflates the sound, meaning you’re hearing things that aren’t even in the mix, eg. the band/producer didn’t want you to hear that, thus making the experience different from its original intention. And finally, vinyl comes closer than any other format for giving you the live experience. What do I care of hearing sounds on a digital system that aren’t even close to what my guitar produces when I plug it into my amp?

A lot of issues may cause the problems you’re experiencing with your sound, but I can assure you that digital isn’t among them, provided that you track, mix and master in 24/96 and use excellent conversion.

Now, you may personally enjoy the dull sound you get from vinyl, but most people today not only prefer heavily compressed and limited tracks, they also prefer ‘smiley-curves’ with lots of highs and lows, and you obviously can’t achieve any of that in vinyl.

Actually, people listen mostly to mp3’s which cut out information which is then replaced by whatever machine you are listening to. And if you like the smiley curves, never, ever listen to musicians play live; you’ll hate it. Vinyl isn’t dull at all, it real. Digital is not, nor can it be. People today like the smiley curves because they don’t know better. I couldn’t begin to tell you the amount of times I’ve converted people from digital to vinyl by simply playing a CD and comparing that to the vinyl. It’s always the same reaction. Always.

I wouldn’t get too involved in a tech debate with this particular anonymous. Based on past discussions, it’s clear his studio experience involves sitting in one a few times during his previous moderately successful pop songwriting career. This is always why he enjoys songs that have the shit compressed out of them and are as painfully lifeless as humanely possible.

Nope, friend of a friend wrote Phillip Phillips’s ‘Home’ which I still hear probably every day of my life on some commercial. I’m sure he’s doing a little more than Ok from that. And the same friend is currently blowing the f up with his own song, of which he’s definitely making a nice chunk of change.

But anyway, of course, I’m not like advocating everyone should start buying vinyl again, though I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to it. I just find it hilarious you get like upset people are buying music in this format instead of the format I guess you want. Pretty dumb if you ask me. I don’t care if people bought music in phonograph cylinder form, if it boosts numbers, great.

I’m not upset, I’m just interested in sound, and I don’t understand why anybody choose to believe the tape/vinyl hype instead of their own ears. Digital is imo the best thing that ever happened to recording.

Cylinders would be fun, though.

AnonymousTuesday, January 7, 2014

“Vinyl isn’t dull at all, it real”

That’s simply not correct.

Again, you may like vinyl because you don’t like crisp highs and fat lows, or you may enjoy vinyl for romantic reasons. I can relate to that. I love the charm of vinyl. I love to touch it. I even love the way it melts when you leave it in the sun.

But digital is a copy of reality, and vinyl is a primitive translation. This is true because of two facts:

1) You damage the cutting gear if you try to reproduce the loudness and frequencies customers want, and
2) The customer’s stylus can’t track them anyway.

I have been collecting vinyl for over twenty years. Analog is a much warmer and natural sound when compared to digital. From a collectable standpoint vinyl has been, is, and always will be the only collectable format. Your observations were spot on. I have purchased hundreds of records over the years for $1.00 each, and have sold them for 20, 30, all the way up to 100 dollars each…Why? Because vinyl records are the muscle cars of music..Cool and collectable…The spin starts here..Digital is Digital..Vinyl is desirable..Its that simple…

Come on, both analogue and digital have their respective advantages and disadvantages. Digital recording is a system of sampling which was acknowledged to have been miscalculated almost as soon as CD’s arrived on the market in the very early 1980’s. Moreover, as a point of interest and logic, if the sound is sampled, at whatever rate, what happens to the bits which are not saved to record the music? Are they just thrown away? Also the sharp cut off at just over 20kHz makes the reproduction most unnatural.
Analogue can produce far more natural sounding recordings, the main disadvantage is the mechanical methods of storage and reproduction, diamond on disc causes wear with each playing.

Get a real turntable and a proper tube amp. But yes I actually remember listening to a CD for the first time it was amazing. It was the fall of 1985 at Suede Studios in Hackensack NJ. We actually compared the record to the CD and the CD was clearly better, damn that was through the studio reference monitors and a $1,500.00 CD player – man they were expensive.

In 1999 I was involved in a digital product. So we did a comparison between vinyl, WAV and MP3. WAV had best sonic reproduction, Vinyl was second and the MP3 sound empty compared to either. It lacks a middle.

on a good soundsystem vinyl sounds better, for cheap mp3 speakers nobody cares what the sound comes from..mp3s are worth nothing..you can have 1000 songs on your harddrive and i wouldnt even want to pay 10c for it..mp3 = air..vinyl = tangible and worth something (of course depending on the artist/song/quality)

Why is someone anonymous always giving an opinion of how bad vinyl is, when it is obvious you cannot even provide a name to stand by your opinion. My name is Jim and I like ALL formats; especially DTS-HD surround live concerts, as well as specific CD material, and FLAC files. Once you get into MP3 you are just a lost soul to think you are hearing something better than vinyl. More logical to you needs, more convenient, portable, ok, everyone gets that. What is missing here is; do you know how to listen to an album? I would bet if you’re under 40 years of age, unless you are smitten with an artist, you are never going to listen to an entire album. This is where inexperience and ignorance may set in for those who only knew CDs and downloads. Others in the 50 or older range spent so much money re-buying albums they wore out that maybe the romance is over for good… but even they can be reunited (probably by their grandkids) with the one format that will never die.

I don’t think even FarePlay is advocating everyone buy vinyl again or seriously thinking it will take over. We’re simply happy there’s a market of physical goods that’s growing. It’s not like CDs where we’d be fighting against a shrinking market, it’s growing, so why not try to keep it that way.

Tune, Im playing my vinyl on a B&O Beogram 3000 turntable, funneled thru a Yamaha C-2x preamp, amplified by a Yamaha M2 Power amplifier, fed into a pair of Polk Audio Lsi-15 loudspeakers. My cassettes play on a Nakamichi LX5

You are more then welcome to bring your CD and MP3 crap over to have a listen off..

if you have an even partially open mind, you will change that mind after just one listen to a well recorded album.

Do any remotely intelligent people actually think it’s a fad? It’s a (growing) niche market, very different from a fad. Won’t turn into a massive normalized way of consuming music and it may flatline soon, but it’s not going to be dropped liked a pet rock in the near future.

the vinyl freaks I know never use USB turntables… you’re mixing with the wrong crowd dude…

Seriously, you really don’t know what you are talking about with regards to vinyl or why people buy it. I’ve read all your comments a few times over, and I just can’t let them pass…..I would say you have never heard a good pressing on a truly top system… you can’t be blamed for that, they are very expensive…. but believe me, until you do, you’re not comparing like with like… cheap and mid-priced analogue is inferior in many respects, cheap digital is far better than cheap analogue
Modern top quality uncompressed digital is the most accurate reproduction around…. but not necessarily the most pleasing to listen to… top quality analogue is different, not as accurate as top digital but usually more engaging.

Analog recordings sound better on correctly produced vinyl tracked with a very expensive cartridge on a great system.

If the recording is a digital recording, then it’s another story.

I’ve blind-folded folks and A/B’d high res digital files vs audiophile pressings of analog 70’s recordings and the results have been mixed….in that some folks can’t decide which sounds better and some folks choose the LP. No one has ever said the digital sounds better though. Not one! I realize a lot comes into play such as digital to analog conversion rates but perhaps someone can point to some controlled tests that have taken place to substantiate the claims…from all sides.

Really, I don’t care. Like what you like and don’t bother others for the format they choose. Live and let live. Most people listen to lossy music and are more than happy with it.. Some still long for the cassette. Whatever makes you happy, you know?

I agree with your live-and-let-live, and we can discuss A/B results and experiences till the cows go home. But it doesn’t change the fact that you can’t deliver popular contemporary music on vinyl without severe loss.

One fine day, a vinyl conneseur is going to ask herself:

“Hey, where the f*** did all the bass go? And the stereo? And the COWBELL?”

I’m no engineer but I’ve heard arguments from engineers in both directions.

I played a recent Tame Impala 12″ 45rpm single on my turntable and the bass was profound, tight, and crystal clear. That was likely a digital recording too! I was using an old Pioneer SX-1250 receiver, Pioneer HPM-100 speakers from the same time period (circa 1976/77), and a Music Hall MMF-5 turntable with supplied Goldring cartridge. The comparison to the CD on a pro TASCAM deck was no comparison at all!

Sure if you cram more than 20 minutes of music onto a side of a 33 rpm disc you are going to experience severe loss….but don’t trash the entire format because of those limitations… or do, I suppose, if it’s important to you.

It doesn’t matter to me what people like and everyone’s ears are different.

“I was using an old Pioneer SX-1250 receiver, Pioneer HPM-100 speakers from the same time period (circa 1976/77), and a Music Hall MMF-5 turntable with supplied Goldring cartridge”

Yeah yeah yeah, I’m not saying everybody enjoy their analogue records over $5 converters. And a few contemporay artists still release material that’s actually written for vinyl. That’s all good.

But it’s a simple fact of life that you have to turn volume way down and cut a lot of popular frequences when you master for vinyl. It’s also a fact that you often have to convert most of your drums and/or rhythm section to mono if they’re not mono already. All in all, the limitations add up. And you get nothing in return.

Frequencies below 100Hz are made mono on Vinyl, but this affects only the bottom of the bass and kick drum in normal pop / rock / dance. Human beings have no sensitivity to direction at these low frequencies, so it makes no difference. Any lack of stereo you have perceived is more likely to be due to crosstalk in your cartridge and / or phono preamp.

I don’t know where you get the idea that vinyl can’t do bass from… yes, bass frequencies are attenuated and treble boosted when transfer to disc is done. This is done using a RIAA EQ, which is reversed by the phono preamp on playback. You get the bass back…. and as a bonus less surface noise from the disc.

Also, vinyl is quite capable of reproducing very high frequencies – as long as the pressing is good and the stylus has very low inertia. This is why people pay massive sums for moving coil cartridges – as opposed to cheaper moving magnet ones. Coils are lighter than magnets, so they can respond better to high frequencies. There is even a turntable available now that reads the LP with lasers – it has no tracking error, no inertia, hence it can reproduce the treble from the disc without any attenuation due to mechanical inertia. Its horribly expensive and takes about 6 months to come if you order one… its being used by libraries etc to archive rare and important recordings…

So, your girlie won’t be asking where her bass has gone, for a start, she’s never heard it on earbuds or an iPod dock. She may ask where the treble has gone, but she’s no longer hearing the hideous high frequency distortion from cheap converters… as to the cowbell, I think you’ll find they are essentially mid-range, and LPs are quite good at that….

You can TOUCH vinyl. It makes you feel really good inside. It can be coloured. It has real life artwork that is BEAUTIFUL. It looks goon your shelf. It sounds great. You can show it off to your friends.

Ya’ll have made some good points here.
BUT–vinyl come in a variety of grades. You have standard vinyl pressing, 180 gram and if you play a LP that is pressed on a 200 gram Mobile Fidelity. . .I guarantee you will hear music that digital can not come close to.
The recording speed makes a world of difference as well. 45rpm LP is going to sound better than a 33rpm LP.
And for collectors there are many flavors here as well, 7″ 45rpm, colored vinyls, flexi dics, picture discs,these really aren’t meant to played.
What does digital offer? Convenience. Love digital files for my DROID or my ipad.
But if I’m at home, I’m putting on my vinyl.
Also, you get more for your money with vinyl. The album cover gives you a lot more to look at and inside has many extras. You can almost get your money back on vinyl if not more.
Vinyl is making a comeback for a good reason. It’s a sound value.

How wonderful that more people are discovering and purchasing vinyl every year. For those of us familiar with the format, we understand the special relationship one has with the ritual and ambiance of owning and playing vinyl. No question that the purchase of recorded music can be far more profitable for the artist than radio airplay, touring or sales of merchandise. To see Beyonce as a top selling artist with sales of a few million albums is a small fraction compared to what an artist of her stature would have sold before digital distribution.

I do not believe the steady growth of vinyl sales is a fad, but rather a deep appreciation and validation that music plays an important part in our lives. The main reason I spend a significant amount of my personal time here and other places speaking out on behalf of working artists.

How many people buying vinyl are actually playing it? I know some people who have bought vinyl ‘special editions’ without even having the equipment to play them on. For these people vinyl is a collector’s item, not a musical experience.

Who gives a shit? I’d rather have 100 people buy a vinyl of one of my artists and never touch the thing ever again than less than that buy DLs. Not to mention, most vinyls now come with a DL code, so yes, some people just collect vinyl like I collect concert posters from shows I go to but have enough wall space for about 1% of them.

Totally agree GGG. Now that you have download codes with most new vinyl (and hell Walmart was doing it with some of their CD’s over Black Friday… about damn time right?) then why would a serious music fan download instead of purchase the vinyl? Obviously there are many good reasons such as convenience, price difference, storage space in their home, etc.. But if you’re a collector as you said, it’s a no brainer! You can easily obtain the digital files to load on your iWhatever for on the go, if that’s your thing. Personally, I stream if on the go. At home I’m listening to physical if I own it. That’s why I’m afraid it may be too late to save physical sales by adding in a DL code. Spotify is way cheaper if you buy more than one record per month. Sure, it might go bankrupt, but Beats and Deezer are coming in right behind it to fill the void if they do go belly-up.

..and , if you’re going to say “why is vinyl still surging to heights unseen since the 70s and 80s?” how about showing what vinyl sales were in the 70’s and 80’s instead of starting at 1993, ten years after the advent of CD, to try and show vinyl is back with a bang – in 1993 vinyl had been beaten to a pulp by the superior music reproduction CDs (with all their faults) allowed to “the man in the street” as opposed to “the lucky rich few” with their very, very expensive vinyl set ups…

In the UK 64% of music sales last year were CD. Fewer than 1% were vinyl. Get a grip.

anyone ready for Hi Rez audio? It is here and mind blowing great.
FiiO is about to launch their second generation portable player for around 300.00 , current one is 200.00.
24 /96 or 192 files are well worth their size. Storage is so cheap now I am not sure why anyone who cares remotely about enjoying music would not dive in to hi Rez audio immediately!!
… Oh and the best experience in listening is to a properly transferred vinyl recording to 24/192… Your audio mind would be blown !!!

PS pet peeve: as vinyl grows serious lack of quality control… Most new vinyl sounds like crap now too bad, cause it’s so easy for it NOT to

Vinyl is way cool and now a lot of new vinyl comes with digi-downloads tagged on top. However, the CD is, in my opinion, the greatest format for physical music. It’s reliable, it sounds great if the mix is great, and it’ll sound relatively similar on all systems. Vinyl, on the other hand, has the potential to be way superior, if you own a $10k hi-fi system With that being said, I love my vinyl collection because it’s cool to look at all the art and requires physical interaction with the music, such as flipping sides. And plus, if you go buy a vinyl (or even a cd for that matter) you’ve paid for it. So, I think in a lot of people’s brains that means they’ll give it more of a chance than if they were streaming it and clicked on a few tracks to preview it. First time if it doesn’t grab them they move on. With physical you’re more opt to give it a full spin or two or three… by the fifth time you might just “get” it and it may be one of your favorite records of all time.

Hey, lots of opinions here, some not quite based on fact… and lots of important details missing.

First, lets leave the arguments about sound quality for a mo, because there is little point in comparing modern digital releases, especially digitally remastered ones with vinyl originals. The masters used are different, sometimes radically different. Frequently, modern remasters aren’t even taken from the original studio masters, because lots of those are damaged or lost. One Engineer I met who was working on a remaster had been sent a 7 ½ ips cassette master to work from, another I came across was remastered from a vinyl copy, AND they got the sample rate wrong somewhere along the line… the remaster ended up pitched and speeded up by a factor of 48/44.1!!!!

Now to quality… vinyl is capable of awesome reproduction, with plenty of dynamics, highs and lows… as long as you are listening to a good pressing on a REALLY good quality (= expensive) system. Most people have NEVER experienced this and are never going to. Anyone who feels that vinyl is dull and lifeless has never heard a good pressing on such a system, which is not surprising, very few have the money. Most original vinyl cuts are actually more dynamic than the digital remasters… I have done measurements to verify this. This is of course because everyone thinks everything has to be so loud. I have done comparative measurements of LPs and non-remastered CDs as well, with the vinyl being played on an uber expensive setup. Lo and behold, virtually no difference at all between the top ends, the vinyl was a maximum of around 1- 2dB down compared to the CD.
Of course, modern digital is capable of far more accurate reproduction than vinyl…. vinyl has intrinsic flaws, limited dynamics, tracking error, disc / stylus wear, stylus interia etc. With a really good system, these flaws are minimised but never completely cured. Orginal early digital was very much the “emperors new clothes” and did indeed sound dreadful. I have some very early CD releases, full of ugly pingy treble…, not a touch on the vinyl of the time…
I see anon not understanding why analogue has hung around… Try getting a chance to listen properly to the differences… Seriously, this is not just a bunch of old men and vintage wannabes prattling on, the reason its hung around is because it produces sound that is ultimately more engaging and pleasing than pure digital. In a way, its a bit like the difference between listening to a band in an anechoic chamber, which will provide no coloration – like digital – with the same band in a good concert hall, where the hall will add coloration which enhances the listening experience and makes the music more engaging. Good analogue gear is a bit like an “electronic concert hall” round the sounds. Note, I didn’t say analogue was more accurate… just more pleasing….

This is great news! I really would hate to see everything “analog” go the way of the rotary phone. Without things like vinyl existing there is a very good chance that the new generation of kids would be completely detached from the roots of the music they are listening to because honestly, the reasons why certain genre’s of dance music even came to be was because of the two turntable DJ setup.

I think it’s hilarious that every time the hint of a “Vinyl” vs “Digital” debate you get the same two lame arguments. On one side, the “Vinyl Purest” who slings the “hidden sounds” and the “sounds between the notes” and “infinite audio spectrum” statements at the “Technical pro-audio specialist” who counters with the mathematics of sampling rates. The funny part is that both are right! The problem is, neither realize they are biased by outside influences such as “Culture!”

The fact of the matter is. Human beings like to buy stuff that represents who they are. For years posters on walls, stickers, and clothing labels have defined the tribe youths associate themselves to. To think that a change in media format was going to change this aspect of culture is a bit naive. People are still going to buy stuff that they can show off to other humans. Unfortunately you MP3 list isn’t very compelling these days. So those who value music, and use it to define their identities will go out of their way to buy Vinyl and start a vinyl collection. Not because its easy or has better sound quality, but because it defines them as a music connoisseur to others who would be receptive to this messaging.

And isn’t that the whole point in the first place? People are constantly putting out messages to others in hoping other like minded people respond.

There was a documentary on the man with the largest record collection in the world. Has 6 million records and no duplicates. The government did a census and estimated that only 17% of music available in his collection is also available in digital format. This means 83% of music on vinyl may never ever be heard without digital conversion.
Not to mention the obvious conversion of Original Format to Vinyl is one less step and uncompressed in analog format. Vinyl is still king of sound. Mp3 wav flac AIFF etc, is king of size. Bad trade off if you ask me.

vinyl is popping up and appealing to the niche markets – i.e the enthusiasts.

Vinyl is perhaps most popular within alot of underground rock / metal and heavily dominant in underground techno and house genres with very strong backbones and catalogues of music.

I buy alot of techno and house – its just part of the culture, and you are guaranteed sales when you press for vinyl as the quality control on vinyl is high – because you are not going to waste money on tracks you know wont sell – and we only really want to sell to these types of people, who are like us – if its vinyl only its not easily as pirated and around the net as quick and people will pay for their copies if they want it.that said – we play alot of old music thats only on vinyl as well – we just keep things consistant.

We are not saying digital is dying or that we dont listen to digital tunes – but it just appeals to the people where its embedded into scene they are a part of.

All this vinyl vs cd cs digital bullshit. If you love music as an art form and its you every days hobby then you will probably want to spend your money on something thats worth it. Thats vinyl. When you in your car or in the bus or somewhere thats not at home you probably want something thats easy to manage and doesn’t take much space. Thats the digitial format.

And sometimes it coincides with similar behavior from other things , like still buying real books or still buying games that come in a box (Collectors Editions , for example).

my friend buys vinyls and hang them on the wall still packedThursday, January 9, 2014

only a close mind see this issue of vinyl comeback as an analog vs digital debate. not surprisingly in the comments there’s more technical mistakes and nonsense hating than in a chemtrails theory blog.
maybe people didn’t realize that while we can make it an audio engineering society debate as long as we want, people buy 700 dollar hi-tech phone-camera with semi pro resolution and then download an app to add stupid polaroid-like 60s retro degradation effects to their otherwise pristine digital photos.
and nobody even realized that a great amount of vinyl release now come bundled with free digital download, so bypassing without effort your endless litigations about hertz and decibles.

I see Anonymous side of the discussion. The difference though, is active listening. You are not getting the full experience with digital. Vinyl is active listening. If you want to skip to the next song, you have to have a steady hand. Maybe some people or the majority like the ability to skip to the next song 3/4 of the way through the last song, but its not a listening experience with digital. There is no texture that exists in digital that completes the vinyl sound. Some music, in my own opinion should never have been recorded on digital. i.e. Stringband music, jazz, blues. It doesn’t capture the purity (human imperfection). Digitals job is to take away the human error. That’s not a pure recording of music. Kind of like when models get airbrushed for magazine covers. I respect that Anonymous has his preference with digital, just not my cup of tea when listening to the artform of music.

Ill be real, I really dig the crackle sound. I dont care what edition i buy, when it was pressed, where, or even if its a poorer quality. An album is an album and Music is Music to me. And on vinyl, being a kid born in the 90’s, its a better listening experience than i ever had with my walkman or ipod because like Blind Lou said, it makes you listen to the ALBUM, and i think thats what makes vinyl cool to have, plus….. DAT CRACKLE DOEEEEEE!

I despair when I read comments indicating digital is superior to analogue – It’s either a basic lack of understanding of digital conversion or these guys are all paying off expensive digital studios and CD pressing plants